SHOWS
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About
For a band we never thought would play anywhere besides basements and backyards, the past couple years have been surreal for us.
In a lot of ways, our earliest ambitions for A Place For Owls have remained unchanged: we wanted to inspire people to make and share art with their own communities and affirm the inherent value of things created by “nonprofessionals,” a message carried by a band of five goofball prophets to house shows across the Denver metro (often with a full PA in tow). After self-recording a chamber emo EP and an album of earnest guitar rock bangers as acts of creative brotherhood, we were honestly amazed to discover that the songs were finding resonance beyond our family and friends, both in online DIY spaces and locally, just as a fresh wave of a Denver Emo™ scene was percolating. Within a couple years’ time, what started as an invitation to play a club show snowballed into some touring and playing alongside acts we could only have dreamed of opening for, including some heroes (Ben Quad, Stay Inside, Forests, Wild Pink, Caracara, awakebutstillinbed, Switchfoot, and mae, to name a few).
While the band itself seemed to be on an unexpected upward trajectory, that time coincided with a period of loss and grief in our personal lives. Songs started flowing for Ben, and band practice became an outlet for collective catharsis and meaning-making. Often, there was no meaning to be found, just pummeling drums and amps cranked way too loud in a small basement, voices drowned out almost completely. We were digging deep into the arrangements, practicing songcraft as gardening: pressing dead seed gently into the soil, praying for rain.
Our resulting sophomore LP, “how we dig in the earth,” is a monument to that season. Recorded over the course of one week at Coalesce Audio with Dave Wilton (A Boy & His Kite, Loud Harp), I hear a tenderness in the performances as I listen back now, cultivated by early morning readings from poetry and meditations, cedarwood incense smoke all tangled in the guitar strings and high ceiling. Fueled by laughter, street tacos from the gas station spot across the street, some tears, and healthy doses of bourbon and scotch, these songs walk a tightrope between breakthrough and breakdown. It’s us at both our loudest and our quietest, vulnerable yet confrontational, devastated yet hopeful, both more emo and more indie rock than anything we’ve ever done. And, undoubtedly, it’s us at our most convicted and ambitious, swinging for something we barely have a name for with nothing but hope and 12 songs as an offering, a harvest yielded.
- Nick Webber
Englewood, Colorado, August 2024
Ben Sooy(Guitar/Vox) Nick Webber(Guitar/Keys/Vox) Jesse Cowan(Drums) Ryan Day(Bass) Daniel Perez(Guitar/Vox)